It is hard to judge what you should keep and leave out when designing a new site. Especially from an SEO standpoint.

Here is a quick list of tips when designing your first site

Crisp, clean image quality
You visitors want to see a fresh clean website, free from clutter and useless imagery.

Consistent color scheme and fonts
Don’t use different colors or different fonts throughout the site. Keep it fluid and consistent.

Whitespace usage
Remember to use whitespace to break up clutter of your site. Leave whitespace around images to get them to stand out.

Careful with animations
Animations can distract and draw the eye from where you intend them to go.

Think about best practices
W3C and other standards should always be adhered to. Always check best practices on webmaster forums.

Simple navigation
Keep it easy and simple. There really is now need for flyout CSS menus, when somebody is juts trying to find their way to an article.

Be descriptive!
With links, ensure you don’t just use keywords. Use sentences like “See how we achieved Best Teeth Whitening Review Site in 2009” not “top teeth whitening review site”

Skip functions
If you are using flash, enable the viewer to skip the animations.

Narrow paragraphs
By keeping your paragraphs just a few column inches in width, the reader is more engaged in the text.

Use proper file names for images
Google images can be a source of traffic if you name your files correctly, and describe them well on-page

Check resolutions
Check your site appears well in other resolutions by setting yours to different levels.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but are usually the most forgotten! When designing your site, always put yourself in the reader’s shoes. If they are coming for information – give it to them quickly and easily. If they are coming for any other reason – ensure they get what they want easily. You only have a few seconds to impress, so use them wisely…